My letter to The Spectator

I am livid at this article, yet another that is written with the purpose of demonizing Jews and equating Israelis with Naziism. The fact that it is written by someone who is nominally Jewish (yet considers himself Anglican) just adds insult to injury.

It is nothing short of obscene to put the words "Jenin" in the same sentence as Nazi crematoria. For someone who brags about having read a couple of books on the Holocaust, it betrays not only profound ignorance but incredible offensiveness. To invoke Auschwitz as he sanctimoniously compares Israelis to those who were hell-bent on destroying Judaism itself is a breathtaking example of what real Jews would call chutzpah.

Mr. Lippman, you are no Jew except as an accident of birth. You know nothing about your religion, you know nothing about the feelings of those of your relatives who perished and you know nothing about modern Middle East history. This accident makes you no more qualified to lecture Israelis who are living in fear day after day than any other self-righteous European who uses fictional Israeli "crimes" like Jenin as a way to feel a little less guilty about the Holocaust.

I really am Jewish. My parents really are Holocaust survivors. Using your own peculiar circumstances where your parents denied their own heritage and you use that heritage for convenience to justify being able to write about your own hatred for Israel is an insult to real Jews, to real Holocaust survivors and to people who really care about their own heritage and religion.

Do us all a favor and don't try to invoke your own pretense of being "Jewish" as a reason to bash your co-religionists who want more than you can comprehend to live in peace and security. As it was, this little essay that was supposedly about hate showed far more hate than your Anglican mind can conceive. It was beneath contempt, and I am always amazed to see such drivel printed in major newspapers as if it means anything.


(Melanie Phillips' excellent reaction to the article can be found here. )